Talking to: Colley Creations
If you haven’t come across them yet, you really need to check out the eye-popping, colourful and stylistic illustrations from Leeds-based Colley Creations. Conceived by two creative sisters during lock down, they have turned their innate creativity into a business, and now you can buy prints of their work or commission your very own creations. Even better, Rachael and Grace are offering a discount for all Everyday readers on any orders: read on for your discount code!
Grace is a twenty four year old who works full time as a project coordinator for an app and web development company. Rachael is a twenty year old film student in her third year at university in Bristol; she spends her time when not studying or creating for Colley Creations working towards becoming a writer, director and producer.
Grace and Rachael share their work with us here, as well as their creative process, what it is really like working with your sister, and the inspiration behind what they make and do.
Do you both have a background in visual art? How did you end up creating together and going into business?
We both have a pretty broad background in visual art. Our mum was a fashion designer who let us do a lot of arts and crafts growing up and after Rachael was brought home by the first lock down during her second year at uni, we then got back into that.
We were seeking different kinds of creative outlets to distract us, so we tie-dyed t-shirts, made earrings and painted on canvases; selling prints is what stuck. We were posting our creations on Instagram for about three months before we began selling prints. Rachael has always been pretty keen on creating things to sell and found that lock down was the perfect time to start it.
Getting into business with one another was super easy because we get on so well and have so many similar ideas that when it came to creating Colley Creations, there wasn’t much to disagree on. The only thing we disagree on is how much of Grace’s money Rachael can spend!
We both grew up drawing a lot, taking art for both GCSE and A-Level, so we have created a lot of work using different mediums, but at the moment have found that Procreate on Ipad is best suited for us. However, we do tend to dip back into physical paintings and we are currently trying clay modelling.
Where are you at the moment? How are you coping with running your business in lock down?
We are currently based in Leeds but when Rachael went back to uni in Bristol in September, we had to adapt slightly. Grace took on more responsibility with the printing and packaging process as all the equipment is in Leeds. In one way, it has been quite fortunate that the second lock down has happened because Rachael has been able to come back home to be more hands on, which she prefers. Thankfully, lock down doesn’t impact the business that much because either way we would be at home printing and packaging the orders.
How is it running a business and creating together as sisters? Is it easier or harder because of your close personal relationship?
As of right now working together has been really easy - we don’t think we’ve had any squabbles since starting, which is a miracle. We think being sisters is working really well for us because we naturally get on so well and being able to work alongside each other is bringing us closer.
Rachael is a very vocal person with her ideas whereas Grace is more on the quiet side and likes to get on with her ideas quickly and quietly, so we think we balance each other out. We think the only time we really clash is when Rachael has to boss Grace around to actually do some drawings as she does need a kick sometimes!
What inspires the work you create?
Escapism - both of us love being able to sit quietly and go into our own little world and create pieces that other people will enjoy, especially during lockdown when we didn’t have much to do. It was a great way to escape from what was going on around us and kept us sane.
We think the work we create is a great outlet for Rachael; especially for her to really show how strange she is. For example she is currently making a print of teeth as plants - read into that what you will!
We have also found that doing personal customised orders have been really enjoyable as it’s great providing a specific product just for them and having them showcase it around their house and to others; it is really gratifying.
Also Christmas - Grace is obsessed with Christmas! Grace is currently working on a commissioned print of a family house with Christmas lights included (it is testing her patience with all the detail but she is getting there). Rachael also found the 31 days of Halloween Drawlloween to be really inspiring, as she thrived doing all of her creepy and wonderful prints. She also gets really inspired doing commissioned dog prints.
We are both very creative but in pretty different ways. Grace focuses a lot of her art around architecture and drawing from her own photographs. Whereas, Rachael is quite abstract and tends to fall down a rabbit hole and ends up creating very weird and quirky drawings.
What is next for Colley Creations?
We are really keen to grow our visibility on social media and increase our sales on Etsy, maybe even one day move into having our own business, which Grace is very much used to creating. We have discussed selling physical canvases; we also love the idea of selling more stickers and potentially even branching out into totes and badges. Rachael has even expressed 10 years down the line maybe even opening a gallery to display prints but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and try to get to 20 sales on Etsy first!
Colley Creations offer a wide range of off-the-shelf prints as well as taking on commissions for one-off pieces just for you. Get 10% off your orders with the code EVERYDAYCC10.
Follow them on Instagram and Twitter, or check out their Etsy store using this link, where your 10% Everyday discount will be applied automatically.